CHRISTINE FRIDAY
Artistic Director
Christine Friday is deeply rooted to her family’s ancestral hereditary lands, Friday’s Point which includes surrounding lands and lakes that make up her family’s tribal hunting grounds, located within the unceded lands of the Wabi Mkwa family. She lives on Bear Island, in her community of Temagami First Nation.
Christine is Anishinaabe Kwe, she is a proficient resilient Indigenous storyteller. She began her dance career with In the Land of Spirits in 1992 and has maintained a professional dance career for over 30 years, as a choreographer and director, developing solo work, commissioned work, youth creations and full-scale productions. In the past four years she has produced several dance films to broaden her audience and expand her potential. As a community activator she inspires gifts that awaken the connections to ignite the cultural wellness and traditions of our Anishinaabek community. Christine has developed and delivered strong community focused programs and gatherings for over 20 years.
Her company, Friday Creeations based on Bear Island Lake Temagami is a First Nations professional arts and culture based community platform that encourages creative entrepreneurship and self-sufficiency that connects to land, empowerment and truth. She is in the process of launching her dream into reality with the grand opening of the Dance Studio Lodge and Outfitters Company the summer of 2023, inspiring and activating land based with professional performance and traditional artistic practices to awaken storytelling rooted in land and individual creativity, connection and healing.
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ARTIST PROFILE
My intention is to awaken people within themselves, creating a shift change in the world by reflecting reality and the human experience. It is important for me to educate and share with others that our culture is strong and thriving in this century, throughout my career and the revitalization of our culture I have received and upheld many teachings. I create work in the present with roots and connection to the past. This is how I bring change in my life and to those connected to it. As we walk in our own truth, we must tell our own stories. This is our own story, a story not allowed to be told by others – and to walk in our own truth of who we are and where we come from, in order to correct history and to move forward together, we must create opportunity for our oral traditions and ceremonies to happen. We then become vibrant, significant and very much alive in this present day.
There is, without doubt, no mistake that I was born into my family as a dancer, performer, and storyteller to uplift and move negative experiences and forces to help my family overcome the effects of colonization and to take back our power and place on this land of our people. We as First Nations’ peoples have a powerful connection to the land. As keepers of the land it is our responsibly to look after our ancestors and prepare for our children. We need to witness the action of creating more opportunity in training and performance with an emphasis and focus on Indigenous arts. It’s time to look deeply to see what is out there, look to surprise and entice your audience with a variety of Indigenous perspectives, look for people who have a grassroots connection to the land, to their communities. We as First Nations people are as diverse as the landscape we come from. We must work together to create positive change, and by working together we heal ourselves, our families, our communities, our Nations. Maggie & Me shares how the story of a healing dance can strengthen communities and help us to better understand our own cultural experience within our own territories by linking stories, inspiration, and the origins of a dance. As a dance artist I have become a healer in my community and beyond. I am often asked to dance in honour of those who suffer as part of the transformation and revitalization of our culture.